As this type of an article conveying container, specifically, as a raising/lowering conveyance apparatus for a large container with an opening/closing door in a front surface, a raising/lowering conveyance apparatus is known in which as described in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. H06-115608 (Patent Literature 1), a raising/lowering body that is suspended so as to be freely raised/lowered is provided in a ceiling traveling crane-type traveling body, and in which engaged hardware that is provided on the lower side of the raising/lowering body on the ceiling surface of the large container or a hook that is freely engaged and disengaged with and from a gap below the bottom surface of the large container is provided such that the large container can be suspended on the lower side of the raising/lowering body. In the configuration described in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. H06-115608 (Patent Literature 1), it is a prerequisite that the engaged hardware dedicated to be suspended on the ceiling surface of the large container serving as a conveyed item be provided so as to project or that a gap be formed below the bottom surface of the large container, and thus a small container or the like which can be lifted and carried by both hands and which is made of plastic with an upper side opened cannot be utilized as it is as the conveyed item. In order to solve this problem, the present applicant has filed a patent application (Japanese patent application No. 2014-122242) on an invention which will be described below (hereinafter referred to as an unpublished patent application).
Specifically, in a container raising/lowering conveyance apparatus described in the unpublished patent application described above, a small container which can be lifted and carried by both hands and which is made of plastic with an upper side opened can be utilized as it is as a conveyed item, at least two sets of container holding means which raise/lower the small container by holding it from both sides are provided and these container holding means are raised/lowered in conjunction with each other and are configured so as to be freely movable closer to or away from the small container in a back-and-forth horizontal direction. Specifically, front and rear two sets of container holding means are provided so as to correspond to both front and rear sides of the small container, and both the container holding means include a holding tool which holds the side surface of the small container and a pair of left and right positioning tools which are freely movable closer to or away from each other in a left/right horizontal direction and which are fitted to both left and right corner portions of the side surface of the small container so as to position the small container. The small container to be handled includes: a projecting bottom portion which is fitted to the interior of an upper end opening portion of a lower small container at the time of container stacking; and a reinforcing rib that extends horizontally on both front and rear side surfaces of the small container held by the holding tool, and the holding tool includes a large number of pins which enter the lower side of the reinforcing ribs on both the front and rear side surfaces of the small container and which are freely advanceable and retractable.